The helmet uncovered from the grave at Concesti, Romania (on the border with Moldova), and shown on display in the exhibition at the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg in the below images used kindly with permission of Marc Corv of the Quartodecimani re-enactment group. The owner of the helmet remains a mystery, as does the culture to which he may have belonged, so we will be discussing at length the potential options. 

The Concesti helmet was found in a grave in Concesti, Romania, amogst a host of other exciting grave goods. 

The finds from the Concesti grave have been separated into three distinct ethnic groups – Hunnic, Germanic and Roman.

The Roman section covers the silver artefacts (the helmet itself, a folding stool, some tableware, inlaid belt strap ends and an aquila plaque). It is likely that the silverware formed part of a complete set. The discoverers reported more metal vessels, including two silver dishes and a set of gold or gilded cups (now lost); such a set bears similarity to other sets from Seuso, Mildenhall, Kaiseraugst and Esquiline Hill. The chemical composition of these objects shows that they are made of at least 94% silver, reaching 98% in the case of some artefacts.

One of the dishes bears the following inscriptions; “Jupiter, Best and Greatest” (iovi optimo maximo), a well-known and commonplace tradition for Latin religious iconography, and two separate inscriptions mentioning Jupiter of Heliopolis (iovi optimo maximo Heliopolitano) and what appears to be Jupiter the Protector (iovi o[ptimo] prot[ectori]) – this could indicate the dishes were created during the reign of Julian the Apostate (reigned as Caesar from the 6th November 355 to early 360, and proclaimed Augustus in early 360 to begin his reign on the 3rd November 361 until his death on the 26th June 363); alternatively, the latter could translate to “Jovian, the Best Protector” – Jovian being Julian’s successor and commander of the emperor’s Protectores guards prior to his superior’s death in 363.

The interred therefore seemingly had a very strong Roman influence to both his grave goods and personal history; the presence of the helmet alone could provide a military connection, but in light of the possible implications of one of his plate inscriptions we may be able to trace a link to a specific (and very high status) military unit under Julian.

The Hunnic objects are predominantly horse-related items; trimmings from tack and saddle decorations, all of a rich status being ornamented with gold and inlaid with stones and found on the related horse skeleton. The date of the grave corresponds nicely to the beginning of Hunnic operations beginning in AD375, allowing us to place the burial in the above date range of the late IVth – early Vth Centuries (although likely into the range of 380 – 390AD).

The East-Germanic objects include a gold diadem decorated with stones and golden clothing appliques, as well as a degraded garment of some kind (a “tunic embroidered with gold and stones”). A study by Alexey Furasiev and Ekaterina Shablavina identifies the diadem and a set of funerary eye caps as belonging hereditarily to the Greek and Bosporan cultures, traditions which still materialise in the hybrid Greek-Barbarian population of the Black Sea region well into the first half of the Vth Century, thus throwing a Black Sea influence into the already culturally rich burial site. This is supported by the addition of a golden torc of Bosporan origin to the grave goods and a second horse bridle; a consistent funerary tradition amongst late antiquity Bosporan sites is the deposition of a pair of bridles (Kerch being cited as an example), and the grave find at Concesti seemingly adopts this tradition with the inclusion of a Bosporan and Hunnic bridle. 

The Concesti likely falls within the Berkasovo-type family of helmets, given the inclusion of a base ring and quadrupartite construction of the helmet bowl. This bowl is formed from four segments that are covered in thin (but high quality) silver foil and joined in the centre by a distinctively tall bronze ridge. The edges have been decoratively stamped in the usual fashion. Debate still reigns over whether this helmet had a protective nose-guard or not. 

The helmet components are held in place by decorative silver rivets, and the repousse work shows signs of intricate detailing along the ridge itself and near the extemities of each bowl piece as well as the cheeks. We can also see (as is to be expected) perforations made for a leather lining around the edge of the cheek pieces. 

In all, the Concesti has a very striking presence to it - the tall shape of the bowl and the (at time of writing) unique patterning of the silver decorations may well have had the owner looking very distinct compared to his fellow solders. 

Leonid Matsulevich noted the similarity between the Concesi burial and the burial in Bolshoy Kamenets; two geographically-similar locations with marked comparisons to be made between them thanks to the stone vault and accompanying equine internment. It seems highly likely as a result that the man interred at Concesti belonged to an East-Germanic culture from the North/North-West Black Sea area, likely the Bosporan region based on some of his grave goods. 

Similarities are drawn by Maculevic between the Concesti burial’s construction and those of barbarian chieftains, including Alaric the Visigoth. M. Kazansky argues that we can assume he belonged to one of several Barbarian client states that began to emerge at the fringes of the Roman Empire, noting the appearance of similar burials from the Bosporus as far as Syria and Nubia and suggesting a tradition of shared common funerary traits emerging along the Empire’s borders brought about by perhaps an imitation of high-status Imperial foederati funerary practices. 

This therefore leaves us with a few loose ends as to whom the grave contained (although certainly one more likely answer); the distinctive helmet is undeniably of a Roman design, albeit with an unusual flair, and his silverware is not only Roman in origin but bears Latin phrases seemingly harking back to Greco-Roman Paganism and potentially a particular Roman military organisation.

It is not unknown, however, for metal Roman tableware sets to be found in European burials (albeit only in “settled” areas, and almost completely absent in the burials of nomadic cultures), so this must be taken with a pinch of salt. Crucially, however, it is therefore likely that the man from Concesti was NOT, as some historians have chosen to place him, from the Hunnic culture. Whether this practice suggests he was more likely of Roman or Bosporan origin is unclear – notably, the presence of valuable metalware is a trait we see almost characteristically in the region, predominantly the famous Kerch gold mask but several grave sites have been discovered containing a collection of high-quality silverware. 

Finds of Roman style helmets in “barbarian” graves are not at all uncommon, however, and as such is not something by which we can assume the man was hereditarily “Roman” in any fashion nor necessarily served in the Roman army purely because of this helmet. Frequently they are found in high-status graves as indicated by the presence of other rich artefacts. Whilst the silverware could provide a connection to a Roman military lifestyle, by themselves they are not sufficient that this hypothesis would outweigh the individual’s location and other grave goods. 

The other goods would tie our individual down to the Northern Black Sea cultural region, likely Bosporan; the nature of the goods in question demonstrate a particularly high status (hence the Concesti burial being nicknamed the “princely” burial) and suggest the man within would have been aristocratic. 

In sum, the Concesti burial bears marked similarities to aristocratic “barbarian” graves from the Late Roman period as well as high-status burials from within the Empire, in locales belonging to foederati client-states; as noted by Kazansky, some of the grave goods (in particular the diadem) and the slab vault construction are unusual for a burial outside Imperial influence but seem characteristic of an aristocratic client-kingdom burial (the folding stool is a distinctly Roman item in design and, whilst being uncommon in both types of graves, seems more likely to be found in a pro-Roman client’s burial than one from the barbaricum). 

It seems most likely therefore that the Concesti burial contained a high-status aristocrat from a Bosporan culture serving as a client-kingdom of the Roman empire during the tail end of the IVth Century AD who enjoyed Roman objects, with a suite of Roman silverware, a Roman folding stool and a helmet of Roman design deemed important enough to our individual to merit their burial by his side.